Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Worked on the house all weekend and for a few hours yesterday after work. I've been feeling very frustrated and getting a bit snippy with Scott for no good reason. All I've done on the house is paint, paint walls, paint trim, paint cabinets...and I'm sick of it! I've been frustrated with him because he doesn't want to paint and I understand that, I hate it too. But since I'm the only one willing to paint the tasks go on and on especially because the white paint needs two coats and you have to wait 4 hours for drying in between coats which makes the process even longer.

But yesterday before I left the house and after Scott had left to go back to our apartment I walked room by room. I went in each room turned on every light switch, opened up closet doors, looked inside cabinets, ran my fingers along the new faucets, new mirrors, new drawer and cabinet liners and finally felt a sigh of relief. Not because we're done because we still have a list of things to accomplish before moving day but because we have come so far. Not a single corner has gone untouched in our new home. When we move in I won't be able lay my eyes on any area that we have not improved in some way. It has been so much more work than we anticipated but the reward is greater than I could have imagined. Although our bank account and our free time has suffered there is a finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

I remember when we met the inspector at the house before closing and as he was going through quite a list of things wrong with the house I was sitting on the couch just looking around at everything that needed to be done. When we left I felt like I was drowning. I almost asked Scott if we should just back out. I thought that there was too much work to be done, we didn't have any of the skills to make these repairs much less the money either. But as usual my amazing husband came to the rescue. He has such a positive outlook on everything that comes across his plate and I've tried very hard to get some of that positivity to rub off on me. He told me that he could do almost all of the electrical work, some of the plumbing, and almost any other thing that we needed. He was also willing to put in all the time and effort that we needed without even batting an eye or thinking of complaining. We are such opposite ends of the spectrum in this way. When I get frustrated or get into negative thinking mode he is there to balance me out and calmly talk me off the ledge without getting angry at me when I am snippy with him for no good reason. Maybe whoever said patience was a virtue had a wonderful spouse because patience is one thing that easily slips through my fingers.

Just for giggles here is the what is remaining on our to do list before move in day:

Finish sanding and painting master bathroom cabinetsReplace knobs and hinges in both bathroomsReplace roman tub faucet and shower hardware in masterPrime and paint new mantel (thanks dad!)Replace two more light fixturesHold back vommit while cleaning out bathroom cabinets and putting in drawer liners (seriously I will take a picture to show you the funk this lady lived with)Spray for bugs inside and outFertilize, water and mow yardRun dishwasher magic and bolt in dishwasher before it falls on the puppyHang up new towel, hand towel, and toilet paper holders in both bathroomsInstall new outlet and switches in spare bedrooms after they are paintedMeasure recessed lighting in bathrooms and order new coversStaple gun up cords from lights we hung under kitchen cabinetsClean, clean, cleanPack omg I've barely started

There now I've said it out loud, sort of, so now it has to get done! I can't wait to share our after pictures with you...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Friday night was an absolute blast! It took me a dance or two to get comfortable and really hit my stride but by the third dance I did (which was a duet) I felt like I really did great. I almost didn't do the duet because there is very little choreography and a lot of solo parts which was extremely nerve racking. But, I didn't want to chicken out so I forced myself and it really went great. I can't wait to do it again! The husband recorded the first two dances but unfortunately didn't get the duet or the last dance because the club had become very crowded and people were bumping into him, bummer. I'm the tallest girl with curly-ish brown hair in case you don't know me (even though the video is pretty dark)...without further ado here's the videos!

Ok, I've been trying all week to get the second video to load but no dice, bummer!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Tonight I will be performing for the first time with the Ginger Girls at PM Lounge in downtown Dallas. The Ginger Girls is technically a burlesque dance group although traditional burlesque involves a lot more clothing removal than we do. It's more of a hip hop dance group sort of like the pussycat dolls but without all the singing. I'm excited and nervouse and tired and all other types of emotions but I can't wait to perform again. I've been dancer as long as I can remember and I even I still take classes as an adult performing is what I really love. If you're in the area I hope you can join us!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

These are some random pictures I've gathered from around the interweb as inspiration in my decorating projects. Apologies for not remembering the source of every photo but most are from Design Sponge. I love the doors to this wardrobe. With the right cabinet it would be very easy to do. I'm also thinking of getting fabric or lace with color to make a patchwork effect.

I love the shabby chic look of this room. The random collection of wall art is a look I'd like to do in the spare bedroom and the hallway.

The trim around this door frame is amazing. I already checked our Home Depot and Lowes and they have good molding but I found nothing resembling the extra piece at the top of the door. I looooove the way this dark gray looks with the trim on the walls. Too bad I don't have any gray in my living room because our trim would be perfect for this.

I plan to do artwork like this on several different sized canavases in our living room. Jennifer gave me a good idea to soak the doilies in tea or spray paint them different colors which goes perfect with my decor. I might sprinkle in a few other images to decorate the main wall in the living room. Obviously I love the idea of piecing together different artwork on a wall.

This is the wall color I would love to our spare bedroom in.

I love this large artwork and the colors would actually go great in my living room. I also would like to find a bench like this as well.

For now I'm just daydreaming about all the decorating I'll be able to do after we move in. We have less than a month to finish the house and get our apartment completely packed up (we haven't even started!). So for now I have to focus on that. The amoutn work we have is overwhelming but I am trying to take it one day at a time. Husband also keeps reminding me that everything I want to do doesn't have to be complete by move in day. But I'm stubborn and I want it all to be done before so I can move in and start focusing on decorating instead of still working on the house. I did hire a company to finish the ceilings and remove the wallpaper and repaint those rooms and they start tomorrow. That will be such a relief to see! They said it will take a solid 7 days to finish all the work we need done which will force me to spend that time at the apartment packing instead of painting which will be nice.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Last weekend we began work on the house we just bought. I wish I had gotten there in time to take true "before" pictures but the husband had already starting ripping the belly of the beast out. The home we bought has good bones and there is nothing majorly wrong with it. It just needs a lot of cosmetic adjustments to put it nicely. The woman who owned it before loved Texas, everything cowboy, everything country, everything Texas-esque. We were also told repeatedly by several involved parties that, "she was a single mom and she just didn't keep up with the house" while they should have just said, "she did everything half-ass and spent her money on useless items like faux-leather wallpaper instead of more important items". When we bought the house I have to admit I was not prepared for the amount of work it needed. It seems like everytime I turn around there's something else that needs to be fixed that I hadn't noticed before. I guess I've learned that next time we buy a house I will inspect much more thoroughly. Nonetheless, we are moving forwards and I still love the house overall. I didn't get any pictures of the front so I will have to post those another time.

A view of the living room. Doesn't seem to bad at first. Upon further inspection you may notice that the walls are a lovely peach with light tan wainscoting. The baseboards, also a lovely tan, have been scuffed and stained from when they put the stain on the concrete that is throughout the house. The mantle on the fireplace is also about to fall off the wall of glossy coated red brick covering the enormous brass covered fireplace. I have to say that scraping off the popcorn ceiling was a wonderful decision. Even with bare sheetrock it made such a difference. It's a shame some one would do that to all the beautiful vaulted ceilings in the house!

This the formal dining room. Since my kitchen is red i was going to keep the wall color until I noticed that in fact that is not red paint. It's more of a magenta-ish red, yak. The chair rail and wainscoting around the bottom though is very nice and it is a very bright room. I already bought a new chandeleir and a beautiful ceiling medallion to put up after the ceilings are painted and textured.

A view of the kitchen. I was happy that I'm going to be able to fit an island in the center since there isn't much counter-top space. I'm not crazy about the black laminate counter tops but believe it or not this is one of the better kitchens in the houses we looked at. I wasn't planning on doing anything to this room for now even though the walls are a little too white for me. Then yesterday I noticed that the walls are not textured. So if I'm going to get that done I might as well have them paint it a color. Since my kitchen is red like I said I wasn't sure if it would look weird with such white cabinets, black counter tops, and the color of the tile. There is also a chair rail in this room (not pictured) that I could keep white(ish) so maybe that wouldn't make the red so striking? I'd appreciate any advice on this one...

Here is the entry way and yes, that is cowboy hat wallpaper border and a texas star light fixture. There is also a large Texas star design in the floor that is soon to be covered up a by a strategically placed rug. We were able to rip the wallpaper off but of course there's no texture on the wall underneath. Another thing to add to the list...

Above is the spare bathroom. Again there is no texture on the walls or ceiling. They must have taken wallpaper off in her and just painted straight over the sheet rock. We removed the border wallpaper with no problems. I also bought new knobs and a toilet paper holder to replace the horse-shaped one they have (not pictured). Then I noticed a crack around the base of the toilet, guess that will have to be replaced too.

This is the biggest treat of them all! A cowboy mural complete with leaves stapled to the wall in the tree and all. Two coats of primer and they hit the trails.

This is the master bedroom with faux leather wallpaper. We gave a good effort to remove it ourselves but no luck. The painters we hired said it's stuck on there so well they will have to float the wall instead of removing it. This means a thick coat of oil and primer then texture then paint. The vaulted ceiling is quite nice though. Since our bedroom is also red I was thinking of doing the walls neutral and the ceiling red maybe. Or a combo of red or red and another color. This is another place where I could use some advice!

And this would be our master bath. It had the most thickest texture treatment in dihareah brown paint I have ever seen. We managed to sand down most of the ridges which is great. This will be painted with new framed mirrors, faucets, knobs, and paint on the cabinets. Should look semi-decent when we're done.

We also have a lot of plans to make this house energy effecient. I'm very excited about this because it a)helps save money on our bills b)will be great for resale and c)the goverment gives you back up to 30% of the cost on your next tax refund. So far we had a radiant barrier installed in the attic. Next we plan to get and energy efficient AC unit and since we need to replace the toilets those will be energy efficient as well, in the near future we will install energy star certified exterior doors too. We also installed solar film on all the windows that recieve direct sunlight and I have to tell you just that made a huge difference. Once we get our first electric bill I will report on how much we are actually saving on our bills. It's a lot of work but we bought this house because something about it gave us a good vibe and it will be even better with all of our personal touches.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Jennifer and I designed and styled the windows at work last week. I must say they came out pretty awesome and we are very proud of them. This first one is the cool color story window.

The is the bright color story based around the kid's outdoor product. I really like the details in this one. It's the details that make something extra special.

This is one that we did from last fall for Linden Street. We wanted this window to have a surreal feeling. This is like a seating vignette outside in a park for example.

This is the other Linden Street Window. I really love this one and it was a lot of work but well worth the effort. We created the outside of a house from scratch out of objects we found around the office believe it or not. Sadly, I don't think the pictures can do this one justice. Here's another look "inside" the home.

We have several more opportunities to design the windows this year and I can't wait. I wish this were my permanent job! What do you guys think of them?